Homecoming - A Gotham Fanfic
by Larry Boodry
Summary: Three years after being shot, Selina Kyle returns to Gotham, fully recovered and fully pissed. And when Bruce awakens one wet and windy night to find Selina has snuck into his bedroom, neither of them is prepared for what happens next.


**The girl enters Bruce's room from the balcony, moving stealthily on bare feet, the rest of her also bare under a very short, very wet nightgown.**

 **She curls her toes deep into the plush carpet, a simple pleasure she'd once taken for granted.**

 _ **Like the feel of rain on my skin.**_

 **After a moment to let her eyes adjust, she moves further into the room, to the bed where a sleeping lump lies twisted in his blankets.**

 **Bruce Wayne, forever her best friend and briefly so much more, until she'd stupidly gotten herself shot and he kicked her to the proverbial curb.**

 **Where the proverbial bus ran her crippled ass over.**

 **She shakes her head to dispel these dark thoughts, then reaches out to shake the lump on the bed.**

" **Hey, Sleeping Beauty, wake up. You an' me need to talk."**

 **Bruce rouses himself and sits on the edge of his mattress, still groggy.**

" **'Lina, that you?"**

" **Yeah, it's me. Who else you know would climb up your balcony in the pouring rain?"**

" **Nobody." He pushes a hand through his unkempt hair, a gesture she used to find endearing. "My other friends ring the doorbell."**

" **You have other friends?"**

" **Ha, ha." He pauses, gathering his thoughts, then stands up and puts his hands on her shoulders. "I was starting to think you wouldn't come."**

 **Selina shrugs out of his grip. "I almost didn't."**

" **How come? Do you hate me that much?"**

 **She stares at him, her green eyes narrowing. "I don't hate you, not anymore, but ever since you sent me away, there _are_ two things I've been dying to do. This is one."**

 **She slaps him, then again, the sound of it like two gunshots in the room.**

" **Jesus, Selina! Why'd you do _that_?"**

 **Selina clenches her fists, the fact he'd had to ask making her want to smack him again.**

" **You wanna know why? I'll _tell_ you why, you clueless bastard! All those times since we were kids, I couldn't break a nail or scrape my knee without you descending on me like some compassionate mother hen, but when I _really_ needed you, you were too busy here in the goddamn cesspool, keeping a bunch of assholes and degenerates from killing each other!"**

 **Selina sees the pain in his eyes, the hurt she suddenly hates herself for putting there, but before she can find the words to fix what she's just broken, Bruce's own words slice at her.**

" **Really, Selina? You're calling _me_ clueless? Hell, maybe I was, but if I'da known how little my _compassion_ meant to you, I would have wasted it on someone else!"**

 **He starts to turn away from her, but Selina puts a trembling hand on his arm.**

" **Bruce, wait. I'm sorry, okay? I like the way you care about me, even if I don't always know how to show it, and I'm not mad at you anymore. It's just, I wish you'd been there when I had my surgery, holding my hand and wiping my tears, and then later when I took my first steps without crutches." She looks down at her toes, suddenly shy. "I missed you being my friend."**

 **Then she just stands there, her sodden hair hiding her face like a veil, her breasts rising and falling with each ragged breath, feeling her nipples hard and painful against the wet cotton of her gown.**

" **Is that all you missed?" he asks, staring at the bedraggled nymph before him. "My _friendship_?"**

" **Well," Selina concedes, boldly eyeing the growing bulge in his boxers, "I sorta missed _that,_ too."**

 **He grins, then remembers something she'd said earlier. "So, aside from slapping the shit out of me, dare I ask what _else_ you had planned for our evening?"**

" **Just this," Selina says softly, pressing the entire length of her body against his and kissing him, a hard, lipstick-smearing kiss that leaves them both breathless.**

" **Make love to me, Bruce," she whispers when they finally break apart. "Make me forget we ever hurt each other."**

 **So he does.**

* * *

 _ **When the yelling subsides, and somewhat later the sounds of passion he'd known would follow, Alfred Pennyworth lets himself into Bruce's bedroom and looks down paternally at the two young lovers on the bed, naked and asleep in each other's arms.**_

" _ **Well done, Master Bruce," he says aloud. "Well done."**_

 _ **Then, careful not to disturb them, he leaves the room.**_

* * *

 **Selina lies awake in the darkness long after Alfred's departure, treasuring his words.**

 **They had grown close during her exile from Gotham, two refugees from the seedy side of hell, and now she understands why Bruce has always valued his company.**

 _ **Thank you, Alfred. Thank you for your kindness, and for raising Bruce into a man who could love a street-rat girl like me.**_

 _ **Thank you from the deepest part of my heart.**_

 **She sighs and snuggles closer against Bruce, and then, for the first time in her young life, Selina Kyle falls asleep secure in herself, and secure in her place in the world.**

 **She is finally home.**

 **THE END**


End file.
